Evaluating the Impact of the Post-2008 Employment Subsidy Program in Turkey

40 Pages Posted: 27 Jun 2016

See all articles by Binnur Balkan

Binnur Balkan

SOFI; Stockholm School of Economics

Yusuf Soner Baskaya

Government of the Republic of Turkey - Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey

Semih Tumen

TED University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

This paper investigates the employment effects of a targeted subsidy scheme implemented in Turkey following the 2008 crisis. The Turkish government started a subsidy program in 2008 to generate new employment for younger men and all women, which are the relatively disadvantaged groups in the Turkish labor markets. The program puts men of age 18-29 and all women into the treatment group, while men of age 30 and above are placed into the control group. We use a nationally representative micro-level dataset and a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the causal effect of this program. On aggregate, the subsidy program seems to be ineffective in increasing the employment probabilities of those individuals in the target group. However, when heterogeneity is accounted for by dividing the treatment group into several sub-groups, we observe that the program has been notably effective on some of those sub-groups. In particular, the increase in employment probability is high for older women, while a weaker positive effect is observed for younger women and almost no effect is detected for younger men. The effect on older women is subject to further heterogeneity: the program has increased the employment probabilities of low-educated and/or low-skill older women rather than the high-educated and/or high-skill ones.

Keywords: employment subsidies, treatment effects, difference-in-differences, Turkish micro data

JEL Classification: C21, H24, J21, J68

Suggested Citation

Balkan, Binnur and Baskaya, Yusuf Soner and Tumen, Semih, Evaluating the Impact of the Post-2008 Employment Subsidy Program in Turkey. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9993, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2800490 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2800490

Binnur Balkan (Contact Author)

SOFI ( email )

Kyrkgatan 43B
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

Stockholm School of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 6501
Sveavagen 65
S-113 83 Stockholm
Sweden

Yusuf Soner Baskaya

Government of the Republic of Turkey - Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey ( email )

Anafartalar Mah. İstiklal Cad. No:10
Ulus, Ankara 06050
Turkey

Semih Tumen

TED University ( email )

Ziya Gokalp Bulvari No: 48
Kolej Çankaya, Ankara 06420
Turkey

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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